General Sarath Fonseka the former Army Commander and Current Chief of Defense staff has announced his retirement with effect from December this year. The former Army commander has declared his plans for retirement to the President Secretariat bycinforming of his decision to refrain from applying for an extension of service.

Refuting an on going rumors of a continual rift between the Former Army commander and the SL government he further stated that such baseless and misleading rumors are created to gain propaganda mileage by the political opponents of the Govt..

Also the Military Spokesman Brig. Uday Nanaayakkara, issuing a statement yesterday regarding speculated rift between the Government and the Current Chief of Defense staff, categorically denied such reports and informed the media that General Fonseka is still the most senior officer serving in the Army.

He went on to say that media speculations and alleged differences between the government and Gen Fonseka are baseless and not true.

The military spokesman reiterated that such repots are illegal and counterproductive, for those reports tend to mislead the public.